Printing Structured Documents

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: capturing print objects, wherein for each of the print objects the capturing respectively comprises receiving a user input gesture over a region of a document being rendered on a display in accordance with a structured object specification of the document, identifying an element of the structured object specification being rendered within an active area of the user input gesture on the display, interpreting the user input gesture as a print content designation command, deriving the print object from the structured object specification in accordance with the identified element of the structured object specification and the print content designation command; determining a print layout of the print objects on one or more pages; and outputting the print layout.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving comprises receiving the user input gesture in the form of a boundary that at least partially surrounds the active area on the display, and the identifying comprises identifying an element of the structured object specification at least a part of which is being rendered within the boundary.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving comprises receiving the user input gesture in the form of a checkmark having a vertex, the identifying comprises identifying an element of the structured object specification at least a part of which is being rendered near the vertex of the checkmark, and the interpreting comprises interpreting the user input gesture as a print content designation command to include the identified element in the print layout.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving comprises receiving the user input gesture in the form of a cross mark having two lines crossing at an intersection, the identifying comprises identifying an element of the structured object specification at least a part of which is being rendered near the intersection of the two lines, and the interpreting comprises interpreting the user input gesture as a print content designation command to exclude the identified element from the print layout.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising modifying one or more display parameters of any region of the document being rendered on the display that corresponds to the identified element of the structured object specification.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the document is a web page and the structured object specification is represented by a Document Object Model (DOM) in which each element of the structured object specification is represented by a respective DOM object in a hierarchical tree.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising presenting a representation of the DOM objects in a window on the display and modifying content of the identified element of the structured object specification in response to user input in relation to the presented representation of the DOM objects, and wherein the deriving comprises deriving the print object from the modified element.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving comprises receiving the input gesture in the form of a selection of a hyperlink reference pointing to a resource outside of the document, and further comprising retrieving the resource based on the hyperlink reference and generating one or more of the print objects from the retrieved resource.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the hyperlink reference points to a web page, and the generating comprises generating one or more of the print objects by performing the receiving, identifying, interpreting, and deriving with respect to the web page.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the hyperlink reference points to a video file, and the generating comprises extracting one or more keyframes from the video file and generating one or more of the print objects from the extracted keyframes.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining comprises automatically determining the print layout by assigning respective ones of the print objects to one or more pages and determining a respective layout for each of the pages based on layout rules and layout optimization criteria applied to the print objects assigned to the page.

12. Apparatus, comprising: a display; a memory; and a processing unit coupled to the memory and the display and operable to perform operations comprising capturing print objects, wherein in the capturing the processing unit respectively performs for each of the print objects operations comprising receiving a user input gesture over a region of a document being rendered on the display in accordance with a structured object specification of the document, identifying an element of the structured object specification being rendered within an active area of the user input gesture on the display, interpreting the user input gesture as a print content designation command, deriving the print object from the structured object specification in accordance with the identified element of the structured object specification and the print content designation command; determining a print layout of the print objects on one or more pages; and outputting the print layout.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein in the receiving the processing unit performs operations comprising receiving the user input gesture in the form of a boundary that at least partially surrounds the active area on the display, and in the identifying the processing unit performs operations comprising identifying an element of the structured object specification at least a part of which is being rendered within the boundary.

14. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein in the receiving the processing unit performs operations comprising receiving the user input gesture in the form of a checkmark having a vertex, in the identifying the processing unit performs operations comprising identifying an element of the structured object specification at least a part of which is being rendered near the vertex of the checkmark, and in the interpreting the processing unit performs operations comprising interpreting the user input gesture as a print content designation command to include the identified element in the print layout.

15. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein in the receiving the processing unit performs operations comprising receiving the user input gesture in the form of a cross mark having two lines crossing at an intersection, in the identifying the processing unit performs operations comprising identifying an element of the structured object specification at least a part of which is being rendered near the intersection of the two lines, and in the interpreting the processing unit performs operations comprising interpreting the user input gesture as a print content designation command to exclude the identified element from the print layout.

16. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the document ( 82 ) is a web page and the structured object specification is represented by a Document Object Model (DOM) in which each element of the structured object specification is represented by a respective DOM object in a hierarchical tree, and the processing unit additionally is operable to perform operations comprising presenting a representation of the DOM objects in a window ( 88 ) on the display.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the processing unit additionally is operable to perform operations comprising modifying content of the identified element of the structured object specification in response to user input in relation to the presented representation of the DOM objects, and wherein the deriving comprises deriving the print object from the modified element.

18. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein in the receiving the processing unit performs operations comprising receiving the input gesture in the form of a selection of a hyperlink reference pointing to a resource outside of the document, and the processing unit additionally is operable to perform operations comprising retrieving the resource based on the hyperlink reference and generating one or more of the print objects from the retrieved resource.

19. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein in the determining the processing unit performs operations comprising automatically determining the print layout by assigning respective ones of the print objects to one or more pages and determining a respective layout for each of the pages based on layout rules and layout optimization criteria applied to the print objects assigned to the page.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium ( 157 ) storing computer-readable instructions causing a computer ( 154 ) to perform operations comprising: capturing print objects, wherein for each of the print objects the capturing respectively comprises receiving a user input gesture over a region of a document being rendered on a display in accordance with a structured object specification of the document, identifying an element of the structured object specification being rendered within an active area of the user input gesture on the display, interpreting the user input gesture as a print content designation command, deriving the print object from the structured object specification in accordance with the identified element of the structured object specification and the print content designation command; determining a print layout of the print objects on one or more pages; and outputting the print layout.